Luke isn't feeling well.

Poor baby. A week ago he got his shots and he's also working on getting some molars. He was just NOT happy today. Thankfully he's taking a VERY long nap. Jeremy just called from St. Louis, MO where he's laid over for 3 hours! EEK!! He had told me that he'd be home at 3 or so, when in reality he won't be home until 8 or 9. I look forward to him being home again...I could use a little retail therapy!! Hahaha.

Tomorrow I'm taking the girls to the Farmer's Market where they are going to spend their allowance on a pony ride!!! They've wanted to do the pony ride for so long, but it's $5 a child and I didn't want to fork over the money...the Farmer's Market is expensive enough...but they earned $2.50 each having a lemonade stand the other day and they're going to use that to supplement their allowance. How fun! I'll take pictures and post them here soon.

When we were at my parents house my dad took them to Leoni Meadows a couple of times. One of the times they came home and said, "We went on 2 horse-drawn carriage rides AND got to swim in the pool!" They are so blessed to have that place to go to. There are so many neat things for them to do and they always spend HOURS there every time they go. They play with the llamas, ducks, rabbits, snakes, etc. They swim, get to ride the train (it's about 5 miles long and an hour train ride), and apparently they also get to go on carriage rides!

You Gotta Wonder....

...when the items on your nightstand have disappeared and have mysteriously been replaced by a red pacifier. I asked Luke and he just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. Sure Little Man, SURE--is that COUGH DROP I smell on your breath?!?!?!

"Please", finally!

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but we're teaching Luke some basic sign language...not much, but that's mostly because we don't know any. It's kinda handy though because one of my neighbors is fluent in ASL...is it considered fluent?!?! I'm not sure. And one of the girls good friends brothers is deaf, so we learn a bit of it from them as well. Anyway, Luke knows "MORE" (VERY well), milk and FINALLY he signed "Please" today. We've been trying and trying to get him to sign "Please" because just saying "MORE" seems a bit rude. And this evening he wanted water (Which he calls by name...very LOUDLY...WAAAAA WAAAAAA) and I thought I heard him say "Please" and I said, "Did you say please?" and he looked at me and signed it to me. How great!! Good job, Luke!!

Today right before church he scraped his face up really nicely. The entire right side of his face (mostly near his eye) is covered with a nice abrasion. It didn't really bleed, it just looks nice and pink. I'm sure he'll be fine...but poor baby, it looks like someone backhanded him!

Tonight Abby had something stuck in her teeth--it was late and way past time for bed. I had no dental floss upstairs, so I used my old tried and true trick (yes, it's gross, but it works) a hair. Savannah said, "You used a hair as dental floss??? How clever!" I love that girl...she is so clever!

Yes, I will post a video clip of the kids "show" very soon...but Jeremy is leaving for Virginia tomorrow, so I wouldn't bet on it being up before next week...sorry, but I don't know what he used to make the files smaller.

Absolutely Too Much Cuteness!

Luke never ceases to amaze me with his adorable ways. He completely embodies CUTENESS! Yesterday he was over at a neighbors house, sniffing her flowers. He puts his face right up to the flowers and sniffs in and out really hard. You can hear him "smelling" the flowers from a few yards away! Speaking of flowers and all, he LOVES drinking from the hose. He'll find any leak in the hose and suck away. He's a big fan of water anyway, but drinking it that way just makes it so much fun! Yesterday he was outside and shivering because it was a bit chilly. I went inside to get his sweater and when I came back out, I couldn't find him. I suspected he was playing on another neighbors little play structure and sure enough, there he was--in their play house, protected from the elements--the SPRINKLER! He went out of the house and over to their slide and slid down time and again while the sprinkler SOAKED him from head to toe. He didn't care, he wasn't cold...he was soaked and he was having fun and he was happy!! :) Like I said, he LOVES water. He'll even stick his face in the bath water and blow bubbles. The girls would never have done that...and I'm not even sure they'd do it now.

Speaking of leaning over, this is Luke's preferred method of picking up his paci: Get on tummy, scoot up to paci, stick mouth OVER paci and pick up with lips. It'd be so easy for him just to pick it up with his hands and put it in his mouth, but apparently that wouldn't be as fun!

Today he was standing outside, waving to all of the cars that passed by. He lifted his hand in the air at each passing car until they waved back. It was SO ridiculously cute!

The girls have been having a dance party with their VBS music in the garage. They've got a bunch of the kids hanging out, blasting music and dancing like maniacs. It's great exercise and a fabulous ministry--non-believing kids are hanging out and singing..."Jesus paid the price, so we can have eternal life...get up, get up, get up and tell the world". Not too bad! Tomorrow they're having their actual "show", so I'll try to get some video clips and post them.

One last thing: Yesterday Abby told me that when she was at Papa's house, they let them swim "butt-naked". She said, "It feels so nice" and I said, "Yeah, it feels like being in your mommy's tummy, eh?" and she said, "NO, it's not COLD in your mommy's tummy!". Of course it's not.

I really need to start a drop shots account or something of the sort for photo sharing...but for now, here's a couple of photos:


The renegade markers were at it again!




Daddy's going "bike-packing". And no, those are NOT Savannah's real teeth.

It's VBS time!

The girls are in VBS this week. They had their first day and seemed to have a lot of fun. It's always a bit of work for all of the children to get comfortable with everything, but I'm sure by the end of the week, they'll be crazy and bouncing off the walls. I'll update and post pictures this week. I'm over-due for some new photos of everyone.

Oh, I didn't note this: The girls got their ears pierced on Saturday. They did GREAT! Not a tear was shed...they were very brave and it looks so pretty to see little earrings in their ears. I'll take photos of those and post them too!

Mommy, is this how you spell your name??

Abby asks me and points to her refrigerator magnet creation:

Quick Update

Hello to all of my loyal readers--all 2 of you! :) Just kidding...I know there are more out there! Things here have been going pretty well. We had a wonderful 4th of July at my parents house. My grandparents, nieces, sister and her husband were all there. It was a GORGEOUS day, with nice, cool temperatures. It was relaxing and just all around fun. We didn't see fireworks this year, and that's okay with me. The girls went with Jeremy last year to see them and they enjoyed it, but it's just so late for children who are used to going to bed at 8pm! We stayed up in the hills for the entire week after the 4th and other than the insanely HOT temperatures and the smoke-filled air, it was great. We really had a good time, especially since the pool was wonderful and clear and refreshing. Luke loved the water too. Savannah was so thrilled that she is officially tall enough to walk around in the pool, and Abby is not too far behind. She'd walk around holding on to the edge just barely keeping her face above the water--while Savannah would freak out because she was so worried that Abby was going to drown! Luke loved the water too. We got him a little floaty that he can sit in and kick his legs. He had a blast. It was a great way to pass the time and stay cool.

When we got back home, our house was still crawling with fleas. We've bombed twice and had professional pest control out here twice...as well as spending a good amount of $$$ on perimeter treatment. These fleas are MUTANTS!! I think we're doing better now, but we all still have bites all over--I'm not sure if it's from being inside or outside...but we've seen 2 fleas since our last bombing. It's very frustrating!!

Here's a not too happy note: due to the not so desirable influence of some of the neighborhood children, my children have been repeatedly exposed to some unwholesome language. The other day Abby asked me, "Mommy, what does F---ing A--H--- mean?" WOW, I couldn't believe that came out of her mouth. She blurred it all together so I knew she didn't really know what she was saying, but the fact that she even said it really got to me. I told her that it was a horrible thing to say and that if she ever said it, she'd be in MAJOR trouble. Well guess what? The other day Savannah came to me and said, "Mommy, Abby said a really bad word." I already knew what it was. I followed through with my discipline and hopefully that will never come out of her mouth again. I'm really struggling with this neighborhood situation and could use prayers for wisdom and God's divine protection over the innocence of my children that is slipping away. They're way too young for some of the things that they are being influenced by. We live in a scary, insane world...and I want to protect them as much as possible.

So, because of that little situation, we've started school again. The girls actually asked me to start. They're a bit bored, I guess...and I've got most of our curriculum, so I'm excited to get started--slowly for now, of course. Both of the girls are taking to it wonderfully, so I'm very pleased.

The girls will be getting their ears pierced this weekend--Savannah cannot stop talking about it. She's very excited. I'll post pictures when I get them. I've got some great photos to post from the 4th and all, I'll do that soon too.

A little funny: I visited my friend Alana today. Her daughter, Ella, is 4 months older than Luke. The older children (her son, Kaeden is 5) were playing wonderfully together and Alana and I got some nice social time while the babies played. We were wondering where the babies had gone to and Alana said, "I don't know, as long as they're not playing in the toilet!". We walked around the corner and sure enough, both babies were in the bathroom, splashing merrily in the toilet!!! We had to go get her husband so he could see. It would have made a fabulous picture, but we weren't quick enough! I asked Alana how she called that and she said, "I have no idea, I was totally joking!!!" It was pretty funny though! Babies!!!

That's it for now...it's time to get little man up and get ready to head to the church barbecue this evening.